The influence of soil tillage system on Salsola kali L. emergence during the fallow period within cereal fields

10 Pág.With the move towards conservation agriculture, we have seen an increase in weeds such as Salsola kali L., well known as Russian thistle, which are wind spread over fallow land. The emergence of this weed species seemed erratic, perhaps connected to climate conditions and management techniques. In order to shed some light on this issue, we carried out a field experiment over 3 years to monitor Russian thistle density in fallow plots, comparing three tillage systems. This study provides an insight about the limitations of assuming no-tillage techniques within a cropping system that include fallow in the rotation sequence. Our results show that no-tillage systems are more vulnerable to S. kali. Low spring rain leads to high S. kali density, especially in no-tillage plots. High spring rainfall reduced the emergence in all tillage systems because of soil water saturation. Minimum tillage technique served to maintain control over this species even in weather conditions that favoured its emergence in other systems. In order to reduce the need for herbicide in fallow lands under conservation systems, we recommend the implementation of minimum tillage to combat Russian thistle infestation.This work has been funded by Projects AT2017‐003, RTA 2017‐00006‐C03‐01 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) and Structural Funds 2014‐2020 (ERDF and ESF) for the financial support (project AGRISOST‐CM S2018/BAA‐4330). We are grateful to D. San Martín and J. Silveria for their helping managing the experiment. We are grateful to Charlotte Harvey for English editing.Peer reviewe